. >> rob: sources do think that the most likely scenario is going off the cliff, and the reason is because, again, this is not going to make voters or viewers happy, is because politically it's going to be a lot easier for members of congress to vote for a tax cut which will be what they will be voting for if everybody's taxes go up, than right now what they're voting for, at least some people a tax increase. >> dana bash, thank you. more raw politics with david gergen, maria car gug go and alex stewart. good to see all of you. maria, i'll start with you. you've been around washington for white a while and have watched these 11th hour negotiations. it seems that democrats will not budge on their insistence that the taxes be raised for the wealthiest americans. does it seem we're headed off the cliff? >> it does. i think a couple of things are at work here. the first one is you said it. democrats are not going to budge. and i don't think that they should. if there was one thing that was clear about what president obama and the democrats campaigned on, this past election cycle and by the way